posted Apr 23rd, 2007 - Norway's national 4-way team Arcteryx left DeLand and the Pink Pilcher House story behind for a weekend. Arcteryx traveled with the Florida Skydiving League to Lake Wales and attended the second FSL competition of the 2007 season at the Florida Skydiving Center.

The Pink distraction of Arcteryx' 4-way business did not have much of an impact on the team's performance in Lake Wales. The new line-up, with Derek Broughton (Point), Tore Buer (Center Inside), Ole Petter Hjelle (Tail) and Ditta Valsdottir (Center Outside), continued with the team's scoring progression and improved the meet average from 19.7 at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2007 in March to 20.8 after the 6-round meet last Saturday.

Team videographer Mikjel Skurdal filmed the team this time after missing the first competition in March. He made up for the missed meet in his own way and helped Teiwaz with his services through the first four rounds of the competition, as well.

The Norwegian national 4-way team in IPC's female category, Valkyrie, attended the competition in Lake Wales, as well. The NSL News had already introduced Valkyrie and the team members with the story on January 26, including a live interview in the NSL office.

Valkyrie could only complete four of the six rounds since it was the departure day for some team members. Unfortunately, the flow of the meet was interrupted by a weather hold in the late morning. The Norwegian Valkyrie goddesses were forced to move quickly from Lake Wales Airport to Orlando International Airport when time ran out for the two remaining Valkyrie rounds.

However, the team's scores at this year's first meet (13.3) were already on a higher level (12.6) compared to the 5-round competition at the World Meet 2006. Valkyrie did not even take advantage of the scoring opportunity in Round 4 when a serious flaw did not allow the team's scoring average to be pushed to a significantly higher level.

Arcteryx and Teiwaz did not miss the same opportunity, and the Norwegian national team's 29-pointer now stands for the highest score for a single round posted by the new line-up with Derek Broughton. The Arcteryx 2006 line-up posted its highest score of the World Meet 2006 in Round 2 (K-J-C-G-3) with 25 points. The highest scores with Derek Broughton so far were three 22-pointers at the Shamrock Showdown. The video will soon be shown on NSL-TV.

The same counts obviously for the 20.8 Arcteryx average. However, it was posted after a 6-round meet. Coach Gary Smith worked with both Norwegian teams, and he was still satisfied with the Arcteryx performance: "The missing four rounds were not too slow, and Arcteryx would probably have ended up above 20-average. We will complete the meet in training and see."

Three FSL teams competed along with the whole and complete Norwegian national 4-way line-up in Lake Wales. The Teiwaz line-up had a new constellation, as usual. Bob Byrne came back after the Shamrock Showdown as the Center Outside, while Kurt Gaebel moved from Point to Tail. Kris Byrne was available as the Point this time after she had to travel to California for her Perris 8-way commitment in March.

The Byrnes family flew the front piece in Lake Wales, while James "Bu" Klinge and Kurt Gaebel shared the rear piece jobs this time. Last year's Phugoid member James "Bu" Klinge had re-joined Teiwaz for the first time this year at the Shamrock Showdown 2007 where he flew the Tail position of the rear piece. Rodney Cruce was Teiwaz' Center Inside in March.

Last year's consistent Teiwaz Tail Robert Chromy competed as the player coach with MWSL team CSC Rhythm at the Shamrock Showdown and was also busy with his new team last weekend. Fortunately, the flexible Teiwaz line-ups and unlimited continuity plans offer many options how to get through any meet situation...

FSC Wind Damaged competed for the second time with the new 2007 line-up. Joel Kmetz (Center Inside), Martin McKerrell (Point), Mario Luppa (Tail) and Gilles Dutrisac (Center Outside) had completed the 10-round Shamrock Showdown competition with a 7.0 average. The Lake Wales home team was on its way to a new record level last weekend before Round 6 stopped the progression.

The FSC 9-pointers in Round 2 and Round 5 tied the highest score of the March meet, and the 11-pointer in Round 4 was a new team record for a single round this year. These scores together had prepared for a new record average in the FSC Wind Damaged history, as well. Only the 5-pointer in the last round stopped the Lake Wales team from a major breakthrough.

The 9.3 meet average posted in June 2005 still stands as the team record for FSC Wind Damaged. However, it seems to be only a matter of time when this year's line-up will break the 9-average and then the 10-average benchmark.

ZT Mal4mations from Skydive Miami is now a step ahead of FSC Wind Damaged in its own A Class progression. The FSL team with the longest travel distance competed with the same line-up as in March. Scott Johnson (Point), Ana Song (Tail), Gary Hansen (Center Inside) and Lance Smith (Center Outside) improved the meet average from 5.0 at the Shamrock Showdown to a new record average of 5.8 in Lake Wales.

The team decided to use standard exits this year, and the results of a more consistent and reliable start into a competition jump begin to show on the ZT Mal4mations scoresheets. The Miami team has shown slow but very consistent progression over the last three years with flexible line-ups of low experience levels. The ZT Mal4mation progression might get a boost this year, as the results at the first two FSL meets indicate.

Last not least, the Florida Skydiving Center finally shows the same progression as the FSL teams did at the April meet. Not only FSL teams and competitors remember how hurricane Charley devastated the great facilities of the Florida Skydiving Center in August 2004.

The NSL News reported on 24 August 2004 how the hurricane took out the skydiving center in Lake Wales: "Even on Friday morning, Charley had still been on the way to the north on a path that seemed to spare the event location in Lake Wales. The hurricane was expected to make landfall in the Tampa Bay area and then continue to the north-northeast. Unfortunately, Charley changed its mind on Friday. The new travel plans began with a quite significant right-hand turn. The hurricane now aimed directly at the Florida Skydiving Center and never changed the direction again.

The results were devastating for the host of last year's USPA Nationals and several NSL/FSL meets. There was not much left of the hangar Saturday morning. To make it short at this point: there was no meet and no skydiving in Lake Wales, and it will take a while until the skydiving center will have fully recovered. The NSL News will follow up with more information and a story of Betty Kabellar-Hill very soon."

The city of Lake Wales promised Betty Hill to re-build the facilities quickly. However, the efforts did not turn out much better than the New Orleans recovery efforts after hurricane Katrina. Two years went by where one of the most committed skydiving operators in history had to run make-shift facilities close by the original location on the Lake Wales Airport.

The Florida Skydiving League continued to run events in Lake Wales, and there was still always a home team that participated throughout each FSL season. The first FSL meet of the 2007 season finally experienced the first visible and tangible results of any re-building efforts by the Florida Skydiving Center's landlord, the City of Lake Wales.

The FSC facilities are now in a new and much better hangar than last year. There are also new T-hangars under construction, and there seems to be a chance that the promised new skydiving facilities in a larger hangar at the original location will eventually materialize. Betty Hill takes the situation with her own humor: "Hopefully I will still be alive to see the new and final facilities..."